Friday, September 2, 2005

"Among the many entities mobilizing Wednesday to help victims of Hurricane Katrina was the National Council of La Raza, with the largest Hispanic organization in the United States especially concerned about those whose lack of fluency in English might leave them less able to understand instructions from authorities and avail themselves of aid."

"'There are many immigrants who qualify to receive help from various entities, but they don't request it because of their undocumented status,' said NCLR's vice president for public information, Lisa Navarrete."

"'In all our shelters we have bilingual volunteers to facilitate aid for Hispanics affected by the hurricane, and we also have a telephone line in Spanish to take any donations the Latino community wants to make,' the Red Cross's Maria Yabrudy told EFE by telephone."

"In the aftermath of last year's hurricanes in Central Florida, many of that area's tens of thousands of Hispanic farm workers were afraid to seek aid from FEMA because they entered the United States illegally, but the agency said it would not report undocumented migrants to immigration authorities."

"While the 2000 U.S. Census put the Latino population of the city itself at only 50,000, analysts say the real figure is probably triple that."